# How Cedric Became Ced

Or, The Long Con

It's raining. Or it was raining, Cedric thought to himself, before he ended up here... wherever _here_ is. Now, the air is sticky with a heavier humidity than he remembered from home. Summer in the city was almost as bad; stuck in between congested metal and hot brick buildings and an air conditioner that they could only run in Ana's room.

In front of him is some... thing. Four arms and four eyes, all trained on him. He had one head but two faces with two mouths, one taking up the lower right of his head and the other on the upper left. They blend together in mixes of warm and cool colors that hurt to look at but Cedric can't look away. His hands felt too heavy and he grasped for metal that wasn't in his hands anymore. He didn't even have his keys, nothing to slot between his knuckles or the sides of his fists.

The thing in front of him bowed, "Cedric Corzaon, it is a pleasure to meet you." Their voice was sickeningly sweet and it felt like it pierced his ear drums. It echoed like it would always be the last thing he'd hear before whatever she is killed him.

"What the _hell_ are you?"

The thing hummed lowly and he had to fight against the impulse to cover his ears. "I am The Conman, but you may call me Ranun." Xe held out a hand, long and thin with skin that's twisted around. It took him too long of a moment to realize their hand was upside down, wrist twisted at an impossible angle. He gagged and the thing frowned.

"Ah!" She exclaimed and thankfully his voice hurts less to hear. They twist hir wrist around so his hand is thumb up. It would have been relieving if she hadn't twisted it around again and if Cedric didn't have the realization that they didn't have any bones, it seems. When he didn't go to shake her hand, he lowered it and sighed. "Yes, I know, this is a disconcerting meeting. Especially considering what you've just done... this must be a difficult situation to understand." The mouths cut each other off, interchangeably finishing the others thought. Ze spoke almost too quickly for Cedric to follow, but he had plenty of experience catching conversations for him to keep up.

Cedric shook his head quickly and tried to look around for an exit, but it was all empty space here. "Where the hell are we? I need to go home! My daughter-"

"If you leave this place right now you will be arrested and your family members will be sent back home." Ranun cut him off before he could say anything more. His blood ran cold. He knew that was the truth. He wasn't thinking straight when he went to their landlords office. He wasn't thinking at all when he opened the gun safe Florian insisted on finding before making the trip.

He wasn't thinking.

Ranun watched him closely and continued speaking. "That's what will happen if you leave. I have an out for you and for Ana and Floren-."

"I'll fucking kill you if you call him that."

"...Florian, then. My... apologies." Ranun sized him up again, a vaguely impressed look on their face. "You are brave and insane by human standard to speak to a de facto god in such a way. I will endeavor to address your husband properly." Cedric didn't say anything to that. He didn't say much of anything at all. "I can help you all," Ranun continues, "But you will need to agree to help me first."

"How did you find me? What are you? What is this about? Did someone send you-"

"I've been assessing many candidates as of recent. You are one of them. I saw that you put yourself into an impossible situation and so I made my decision to provide you an out." He started to speak but Ranun cut him off _again_ and he's steadily more and more frustrated by it and less and less willing to bite his tongue. "You need me. Your family needs me."

Cedric shook his head and closed his eyes. When he opens them, he'll be back in the office with sirens in his ears. "You- you're a parasite. What the hell kind of thing preys on people like that?"

"No, I am The Conman, I can't be a parasite." Ranun explained as if it's obvious. "I will help you three, if you trust me.""

"How can I trust you? You just told me you're a conman!" Cedric insisted and continued speaking before Ranun could cut him off, opening his eyes only to still be there. "No, sorry, _The_ Conman... whatever the hell that means. How do I know you aren't lying to me?"

Ranun watched Cedric for a long time. So long that Cedric started to squirm, scratching his arms and pulling on his clothes. "I'm not _actually_ The Conman anymore. For me to return to that title, I need to do some things differently. Otherwise I am just as bad as her. A false god under false pretenses." Cedric must have looked as lost as he felt because they sighed dramatically, crossing his arms. "Someone stole my position, my identity, and most of my power. She is using the name I once used... Anenome. I am looking to reusurp her after she stole it from me under false pretenses."

"You're conmen, shouldn't it always be under false pretenses?" Ranun looked at him like the answer is obvious and he was too proud to admit that he didn't understand.

Ranun sighed and shook their head, "It could be, if I were to have the leverage needed to make a more simple grab for power. No... no, I need to do things differently."

"And you need me to do things differently? Have you considered asking her nicely? Maybe bring her here and trap her instead of me?!" Cedric snapped, still fidgeting nervously.

"I'll need something more defining. Something to regain the respect of my people. They've lost sight of The True Conman... I would be disappointed, but her con has been successful... and I would never accept people so inadequate into my heart if they were to fall for a lesser con." Ranun explained, as though he had given a genuine idea, and crossed his legs. Cedric watched her this time, eyeing around for an escape but there is none. He sighed and sits down on... whatever is below him, legs crossed like Ranun's but he wouldn't realize it.

"I have a plan. I need a host to walk the world on my behalf." Ranun continued when Cedric didn't speak up. "_I_ plan to tell the truth. Not a word will be spoken from my lips if it is not truthful. The Truest Con will be one with truths so preposterous that none will believe them no matter what proof they have. My host will not be beholden to the same requirements. My host will know every piece before it happens and every piece to come after. Their actions in my stead will look and smell and feel like lies, but they will not be... My host will understand what needs to happen. "Wouldn't that be an incredible con? One that doesn't even require a true lie." Ranun's voice was soaked in dreams, lulling him along but it was _wrong_. He had to cover his ears to think straight. Blood dripped from his nose.

"Fucking- stop that! Stop talking like that!""

Ranun paused, both mouths slowing to a stop. "We are on the right path if you are sensitive to my voice, but I will endeavor to mind my tone." Cedric lowered his hands and true to xir word, her voice didn't hurt to listen to. "I am promising my host an honest partnership. A collaborative effort... no true lies."

Cedric began to fidget again. "If you're lying at all, then it's still a lie."

"Not by our standards, no. Any truth makes it true. We-" Cedric started to cut him off but Ranun was too fast for him. "I will explain who _we_ are soon, but consider us... gods of monsters. We are, for better or worse depending on which of us you ask, bound to the realities of this world no matter how we bend it. Truth, hope, goodness... if we are tainted, even a little bit, then we are no longer what we once were." Ranun's voice started to slip but Cedric watched them reign it in. He let go of the ends of his shirt. "But I am already no longer what I once was. I am already tainted... so I will take what tainted me and I will remove it from myself. I will become The _True_ Conman. First, though, my host needs to separate from everything they have known until they've completed some tasks... and everything they have known will be separated from them."

His eyes widened, all too easily picking up what he was saying. "No one would remember me." His voice came out quiet and damning, sweat dripping down his temples. "Florian and Ana... our friends... What would they think? What would they... remember?"

"We would need to add something that feels like a lie- it's the only way my influence will not waver." Cedric's frown deepened but Ranun continued, "Oh! I know; you'll allow me to put someone new in your place! It'll be as though nothing changed. It'll be _so_ simple!"

"Don't say it like I've already agreed!"

Ranun shrugged, "Won't you?"

Cedric glared at him and wipes the sweat away again. His chest feels tight just like Ana's pediatrician tells him and Florian it feels, right before he shows the bill for her inhalers. Always a reminder of how much it'll hurt her to go without, as if either of them needed more than the night she stopped breathing for 27 seconds. He hasn't made it this far, done everything he could, just to be replaced.

"No." Ranun goes to speak but he continues on without a chastise this time, cutting off a disappointed complaint, "Can't you just... move them? Somewhere comfortable... no where too hot or cold. They'll just need a few things. You probably know how to wipe memories or something like that, right?" Ranun raises two interested brows before nodding, "If you take away where they really are from my mind and you just keep it at our apartment... change things up... that's a truth that feels like a lie, right? Enough of one? Enough until I could remember them?"

"You-" Ranun laughs and stands up, "You are very, very clever." The monster paces on air for a moment, murmuring quietly to himself, too quietly for Cedric to make any of it out and he can't keep enough track of what each mouth says to the other to read his lips. "There'll be more things to keep track of but... I can make this work. I _will_ make this work, Cedric, because with your help I will regain everything _She_ took from me. With your help... _we_ will become The True Conman once again. I will give you anything you need in the interim and after. You'd be doing me an invaluable service."

Cedric held back another gag, realization settling in deeper. "You can't touch them or- or talk to them after you finish making sure they're settled. You have to leave them alone. And... and I want an hour- _at least_ an hour -every day. I can use it in whatever chunks I want and you're not allowed to argue with me. What I say goes when it's my... my turn."

Ranun watched him again. He felt a pull as if already giving her his body, his name, his word, but he could tell it wasn't something he was doing. It felt like resignation. "I can agree to those terms." They repeated.

"They'll have everything they need?"

"I'll see to it personally that your husband has a well paying job, a well kept home, and childcare for Ana. They will not want for much. They will be happy if only a bit lonely at the end of the day."

"And they really won't miss _me_?"

"They may wonder if something or someone is missing but even a name or a face won't jog a thing for either of them. You won't be a memory. You will never have existed for them. Florian's husband, someone you'll never know either, either died or left- I haven't decided on that part yet."

"You- _Ugh_." Cedric sighed and held back the frustration bubbling in his chest. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

All four of Ranun's eyes turned to him. "You don't. You won't. You'll believe they're struggling in the apartment whose landlord _you_ just killed. But you won't remember that, either." She offered him all four of her hands, "You'll just have to trust me, Cedric."

Cedric held his breath and waited. He wondered how long it would take for Ranun to lower their hands, how long it would take for him to change his mind and find someone else. How long would he have to clean up his mistakes and run?

27 seconds pass and his chest _burned_ until he gave in and gasped for breath. The heat and the sweat and the fear took every bit of breath from him. He needed to know how she felt. Ranun stared, unwavering.

Cedric held out his hand.